Where are suggestions or open discussions of Guix at large made?

Where are suggestions or open discussions of Guix at large made?

[Yasuaki Kudo]

Hello!

I wonder which mailing list (or anything else) is the best for open-ended Guix discussions.

I think Guix has a huge potential and it a needs a downgraded version (akin to how Ubuntu makes a worse version of Debian) so that more people can use it.   As it stands, by default, Guix doesn't have:

* Regular, unpatched Linux with unaccountable black magic firmware code 
* Polluted web browsers like Google Chrome
* Visual Studio Code that probably has similar issues as Google Chrome?
* and on and on...

The first is one of the most serious problems because computers with AMD graphics cards won't even boot without it?  (The installer may, but once installed, it seems to halt during boot, even when desktop services are turned off?)

I have heard of PantherX but I wonder if anyone is thinking about "vernacular" dirty Guix-derivative with all sorts of horrible compromises... 😄

Cheers,
Yasu

Re: Where are suggestions or open discussions of Guix at large made?

[znavko]

Guix repeats the idea of Nix, but realising it more preciously and elegantly.
Instead of self-made imperfect language describing configuration
Guix is using powerful Guile.

You want some forks of Guix, do you?
It is hard to package some software you like for Guix,
but forking guix breaking its elegance for just to install firmware, 
Oracle, Chrome and other stuff is not rational at all, i think.

I think, there is a sense to tune Guix for some
commercial solutions like web-server, database server.

Guix and reproducible builds are from 5th industrial revolution 
(that did not happened yet) when you can easily change your 
production cycle for even each one product
to fulfil desire of every customer. 
There you need to configure your production cycle many ways 
and every configuration must work!

If you want popular comfortable OS on your home computer, that is not idea of Guix.


December 7, 2020 9:43 PM, "Yasuaki Kudo" <yasu@yasuaki.com> wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> I wonder which mailing list (or anything else) is the best for open-ended Guix discussions.
> 
> I think Guix has a huge potential and it a needs a downgraded version (akin to how Ubuntu makes a
> worse version of Debian) so that more people can use it. As it stands, by default, Guix doesn't
> have:
> 
> * Regular, unpatched Linux with unaccountable black magic firmware code 
> * Polluted web browsers like Google Chrome
> * Visual Studio Code that probably has similar issues as Google Chrome?
> * and on and on...
> 
> The first is one of the most serious problems because computers with AMD graphics cards won't even
> boot without it? (The installer may, but once installed, it seems to halt during boot, even when
> desktop services are turned off?)
> 
> I have heard of PantherX but I wonder if anyone is thinking about "vernacular" dirty
> Guix-derivative with all sorts of horrible compromises... 😄
> 
> Cheers,
> Yasu

Re: Where are suggestions or open discussions of Guix at large made?

[Ricardo Wurmus]

znavko@disroot.org writes:

> If you want popular comfortable OS on your home computer, that is not
> idea of Guix.

I must have been doing things wrong then.  I find Guix System to be
exceptionally comfortable, and it’s the most popular OS on my home
computers ;)

@Yasuaki: Guix can be and is regularly extended with custom channels.
Since browsers and different variants of the kernel Linux are just
packages, channels can provide such packages, even when the official
Guix channels don’t provide them.

-- 
Ricardo

Re: Where are suggestions or open discussions of Guix at large made?

[zimoun]

Hi,

On Mon, 07 Dec 2020 at 22:55, znavko@disroot.org wrote:
> Guix repeats the idea of Nix, but realising it more preciously and
> elegantly.

The word “repeat” is incorrect here.  It is more appropriated to say:
Guix is based on the idea of Nix or Guix applies similar ideas pioneered
by Nix.

The divergence is clear enough since the very beginning to not repeat
the confusing / wrong: “Guix is a fork of Nix implemented in Scheme”.

> It is hard to package some software you like for Guix,

It depends on how much Love are we ready to put in? :-)

> but forking guix breaking its elegance for just to install firmware, 
> Oracle, Chrome and other stuff is not rational at all, i think.

The concept of channels avoids to fork and instead allow to extend.  It
is possible to extend by adding packages, as the channel guix-past for
instance, or by adding subcommands, as the channel home-manager
illustrates for example.


> If you want popular comfortable OS on your home computer, that is not
> idea of Guix.

Popular is meaningless here.  Comfortable, if not then I feel I am
failing and so please point your unpleasant experience and then let’s
see how to fix it. :-)


All the best,
simon

Re: Where are suggestions or open discussions of Guix at large made?

[Yasuaki Kudo]

Hi,

Of course, I agree with everything that's said here.  That's exactly why I am excited about Guix!   

I think it has a sound mechanism to fine-tune the degree of impurity one wishes to accept.

What I was thinking was maybe more organizational - is someone coming up to form a group or something 😄 that provides for a compromised (in-terms of accountability and license) yet convenient environment, akin to Ubuntu, using the fine mechanisms mentioned here?

It looks like Guix is creating a ripe environment for a service provider to do these things 😄

Cheers,
Yasu


> On Dec 8, 2020, at 09:51, zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>> On Mon, 07 Dec 2020 at 22:55, znavko@disroot.org wrote:
>> Guix repeats the idea of Nix, but realising it more preciously and
>> elegantly.
> 
> The word “repeat” is incorrect here.  It is more appropriated to say:
> Guix is based on the idea of Nix or Guix applies similar ideas pioneered
> by Nix.
> 
> The divergence is clear enough since the very beginning to not repeat
> the confusing / wrong: “Guix is a fork of Nix implemented in Scheme”.
> 
>> It is hard to package some software you like for Guix,
> 
> It depends on how much Love are we ready to put in? :-)
> 
>> but forking guix breaking its elegance for just to install firmware, 
>> Oracle, Chrome and other stuff is not rational at all, i think.
> 
> The concept of channels avoids to fork and instead allow to extend.  It
> is possible to extend by adding packages, as the channel guix-past for
> instance, or by adding subcommands, as the channel home-manager
> illustrates for example.
> 
> 
>> If you want popular comfortable OS on your home computer, that is not
>> idea of Guix.
> 
> Popular is meaningless here.  Comfortable, if not then I feel I am
> failing and so please point your unpleasant experience and then let’s
> see how to fix it. :-)
> 
> 
> All the best,
> simon